


tether me to sanity

by Cxnfiscated



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 7: Internet Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Klance AU Month 2019, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, they just love each other so much, video chatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 20:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17732441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cxnfiscated/pseuds/Cxnfiscated
Summary: Queef:hey, you down to talk later?Lance smiled down at his phone. Warmth spread in his chest and the dark feeling looming over his chest lightened. He let it sit for a moment, revelled in a lightness, a sense of content, he hadn’t felt in days.





	tether me to sanity

**Author's Note:**

> Day 7: Internet Friends

One text was enough to make him happy.

**_Queef:_ **

_ hey, you down to talk later? _

 

Lance smiled down at his phone. Warmth spread in his chest and the dark feeling looming over his chest lightened. He let it sit for a moment, revelled in a lightness, a sense of content, he hadn’t felt in days. 

He eyed the work sitting on his desk, books he had to read, sticky notes containing bits and pieces of essays that had yet to be written. He checked in with the to-do list in his head, the one that always got two items longer for everything he got to cross off. 

He really shouldn’t.

 

**_You:_ **

_ yeah!! sure!! _

  
  


* * *

 

“So, how have been?” Keith frowned, and Lance was sure that the concealer he had layered underneath his eyes did nothing to mask his exhaustion from Keith. Keith was able to read his emotions from the way he took a breath and from the way he sat down in a chair, he found hidden meanings in things that weren’t even supposed to have any. Lance should’ve known better than to try to hide it from him.

“That’s a loaded question.” Lance shifted in his chair until he was settled in sideways and his feet were dangling off the armrests. 

“Only when it comes to you,” Keith answered, a small smile playing on his lips. Lance wanted to press his lips against it until the taste of it on his lips were the only proof that it had ever been there. 

Lance blinked at Keith, waiting for him to say anything else. But Keith refused to fill the silence. Now that they talked instead of messaging it was even more powerful than it had been before.

 

**_You:_ **

_ I’ve been a bit down lately. You know how it is. _

**_Queef:_ **

_ Now I don’t, tell me about it? _

 

That was back, way back when they had first started messaging each other. Both bonding over their shared love for their favourite TV show:  _ Space Ranger Partners. _ Lance had been a bit distant and Keith, for some reason, noticed. He pried, but actually coming from a place of concern. Lance tried every tactic of saying nothing, of empty rambles, of changing the topic again and again. But Keith persisted.

And thus, a pattern emerged, one that lasted even after their friendship had morphed into something more. Keith asked, Lance told him a half-truth, expecting him to fill in the gaps, Keith refused to and Lance caved. 

 

“I’ve been experiencing a bout of  _ la flemme  _ recently,” Lance answered and his voice rising and his gestures dramatic when he reached his newly learned favourite word.

“And you’ve been doing your French vocabulary, I’m proud of you,” Keith answered dryly. But He couldn’t fool Lance though, he had clearly seen the corners of his mouth twitch.

“You’re supposed to ask me what it means!” Lance exclaimed, his tone no less dramatic.

“Careful, your theatre kid is showing,” Keith raised an eyebrow and shot him an amused grin, “But fine, I’ll bite: What does it mean?”

 

“Laziness.”

 

Keith frowned at that, eyes narrowing, his head tilted. “I don’t think that’ true.”

Lance was left blinking at him, at a loss for words, he hadn’t expected that Keith would just reject his answer like that. He still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that Keith didn’t need more than a sentence to tilt the ground beneath his feet, to leave him reeling and completely out of his depth. 

“What makes you say that?” 

 

“I can see your to-do list, Lance,” Keith answered and Lance’s head shot around. Indeed, there it was. On the whiteboard mounted to his wall, scrawled in black marker, a list way too long, full of things he should be doing right now. Things he shouöd have done by now. Lance’s shoulders strained as anxiety placed itself on them like they were the rightful place for it all along.

 

Keith’s face had softened when Lance turned back to face him. “I can also see that it is way too long.” Lance bit down on his lips and didn’t say anything. “So, again, how have you been?”

 

“It’s been rough lately.” Finally, the truth.

“Walk me through it?” Keith’s calm voice was his only tether to sanity, his anchor. It always was when thing got this bad.

 

And so the words began to flow, like a tap that had been opened and then broke the handle with the amount of water that came rushing out. Lance told him of this role he was planning on auditioning for, how the lines seemed to evade his mind no matter how often he rehearsed them. How his words seemed hollow and empty whenever he brought them onto the page, how his heart didn’t fit inside his chest anymore, even though half of it was with Keith anyway.

 

He told him all of that and when it was all out there, all of the shambles out in front of him. Keith leaned down began to pick them up again. 

 

“Lance, take a deep breath with me.” Lance focused on the rise and fall of Keith’s chest and tried to imitate it until they were perfectly in sync. 

“Perfect and now, what’s next?”

“French test, tomorrow afternoon.” 

“Okay, then focus on that and then on the others. You don’t have to do everything at once.” Keith shot him a reassuring smile and Lance felt something inside his chest uncoil, like a breath lodged in his chest for hours now finally leaving his lungs.

The walls didn’t feel like they were about to collapse inwards anymore, and time didn’t feel like it was running away from him. He was the eye of the storm, stress and work all of it were still surrounding him. But he was calm, he got to breathe.

 

“Thank you, Keith. I─ I don’t know what I would do without you.” Lance smiled at him, and for once, it was sincere. “I love you.” The only words fit to describe what he was feeling I that moment and yet, somehow still not enough.

“I love you, too,” Keith smiled and Lance’s world felt brighter than it did before, “and that’s why I’ll keep doing this, being here for you, just the way you are for me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> hey, hello!! You made it!! Thank you for reading!
> 
> (let's pretend that this isn't me projecting onto characters, yeah?)
> 
> N E Ways, follow me on twitter [@cxnfiscated](https://twitter.com/cxnfiscated) and stan my baby [And Yet, The Sun Will Rise Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15206018/chapters/35268089)  
> Buh-Bye!


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